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Battles: Battle of Chalons
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Posted by Shogun 144 on September 19 2005, 07:17 PM
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The Battle of Chalons or as it alternately known, The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields was one of the bloodiest battles in ancient history. It was also one of the most decisive.
The road to the battle was started by the actions of a single woman. In 449 AD the sister of Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, Honoria, had been discovered as having an affair with her steward. In a rage Valentinian had the hapless steward executed and Honoria confined by marrying her to the wealthy senator Herculanus. Honoria was also enraged and to spite her brother she asked the King of the Huns, Attila, to be her champion. To convince Attila the offer was real Honoria had her ring sent with the letter. Attila meanwhile was looking for new lands to plunder; his numerous raids on the Eastern Roman Empire had nearly exhausted its treasury. On top of this in 450 a new emperor ascended to the purple, Marcian, and he was determined to not let Attila intimidate him. When Attila received Honoria’s letter and ring it gave him the perfect excuse to invade the west, which was untouched and rich. In early 451 AD Attila crossed the Rhine with a massive army consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Gepids, Franks, Rugians, Sciri, Burgundians, and Thrugians into the Western Roman Empire. He declared that his intention was not to plunder and raid, but to get his dowry from his upcoming marriage to Honoria. Attila had taken that by asking him to be her champion Honoria was asking for Attila to marry her. For this dowry, Attila demanded half the Western Roman Empire. Valentinian outright refused and had Honoria forced into a nunnery in Constantinople for the rest of her life. Attila’s first strike landed on Divodurum (modern Metz) on April 7th, followed by Cambri, Strasbourg, Rhiems, Amiens, Worms, Mainz, Colongne, and Trier. Every city Attila touched was torched; it seemed nothing could stop him from having his way. By June, 451 Attila and his Huns had reached the city of Aureliani (modern Orleans) and halted there. The reason for this was that Aureliani rested in Alan territory, and the Alan king Sangiban promised he would open the gates to Attila. But Sangiban was delaying for some reason, leaving Attila out in the open. Meanwhile Flavius Aetius, Magister Militium (English: Master of the Army), had moved his army out of Italy and into to Gaul. Once there Aetius entered into negotiations with Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, who was his long time enemy. At first Theodoric refused to listen to Aetius but with the help of a powerful local friend named Avitus he was able to convince the Visigothic king, and some other scattered tribes, to an alliance. The Roman and Visigoth forces would meet up outside Aureliani on June 14th. Just as the allies joined up Sangiban opened the gates and let Attila in. Aetius acted fast and managed to get his army into Aureliani just in time to catch the Huns as they entered the suburbs. The Romans and Visigoths easily drove the Huns out of the city (They were ill-suited for fighting in the streets) and Attila began retreating, probably with the intent of returning to his home lands in the Pannonian Plains (modern Hungary). But Aetius was not willing to let Attila escape, so he ordered a pursuit of the Hunnic army, destroying its rear guard in the process. On June 20th The Roman-Allied army (The Alans had defected during the pursuit) caught up with the Huns at a place called the Catalaunian Plains, near modern Chalons-en-Champagne.
Aetius and Theodoric drew up their army first. Upon arriving at Catalaunian Plains Aetius drew up his army unconventionally with his least reliable troops, the Alans under Sangiban in the center, the reason would become clear later. On the right were the Visigoths under Theodoric and his son Thorismund and on the left was Aetius and his crack Roman troops. Attila was much more conventional in his draw up, with his best Hunnic troops in the center, the bulk of his allies under the Gepid king Ardaric on the right, and the Ostrogoths under their king Walamir on the left. The number of troops involved is disputed to this day, but it is generally agreed that a total of 100,000 men took part in the battle.
The battle would not begin until after midday. Attila had become shaken by his reversal of fortune and so for the morning of June 20th, 451 stayed behind the barricade of his wagon laager. During this time Attila, as was the custom of the Huns, made a sacrifice and had the entrails read to assure his men. But the diviners foretold disaster for the Huns, and the death of an enemy leader. Attila hoped this meant Aetius would die that day. To raise the spirits of his men Attila decided he would personally fight in the battle and gave a stirring speech before battle, only one part is known for sure: “If any man stands still while Attila fights… He is a dead man!” The Huns and their allies struck out of the laager at 3 PM. The center of the battle soon became for control of the only piece of high ground, a ridge that dominated the area around the Hunnic left. Walamir reached the hill first, followed by Thorismund and his cavalry. A fierce bloody battle for control ensued with Thorismund emerging triumphant in the end by driving Walamir off. After this initial skirmish the details became sketchy, what we do know is that the fighting was so fierce that the river which ran through the area ran red with the blood of the fallen, this earning the battle its Latin nickname: cadavera vero innumera “Truly Countless Bodies”. According to the surviving accounts Attila and his Huns advanced ahead of their main force and broke the Alans in the Roman-Allied center, then chased after them further. This put Theodoric and his Visigoths in a hard position because they were now being hit from two sides, in the front by Walamir, in the left by Attila. At this moment Theodoric rode out to keep panic from spreading, but while doing this the Visigoth king was knocked off his horse and killed by his own horsemen, but rather then loose heart the Visigoths struck with renewed fervor, driving off Walamir and Attila. Meanwhile on another part of the battlefield Aetius and his Roman forces did their part by keeping the Huns’ other allies occupied, setting the stage for the next part of the battle. On the ridge Thorismund regrouped his cavalry and charged the Ostrogoth forces in their flank, driving them off the field. Meanwhile the main Visigoth host turned and fell on the Hunnic center and Attila, realizing that Aetius was attempting a “Cannae” (a double envelopment) fled with his remaining forces back behind the wagon laager just as dusk fell upon the battle field. So ended one of the bloodiest battles in ancient history.
In the aftermath of the battle much happened. The next morning revealed the level of carnage that occurred the previous day, thousands lay strewn across the battlefield. Thorismund, who had just learned that morning of his father’s death, suggested a mass assault on the Hun wagon laager. He told Aetius that he must finish the job he started. But Aetius was not only a general but the consummate politician. Aetius knew that if Attila and the Huns were destroyed then the Visigoths would become too powerful for him to control, so he advised Thorismund to hurry home to what is now Toulouse to secure his throne from his brothers, which Thorismund did though reluctantly. Once the Visigoths withdrew, so did Aetius. Meanwhile Attila had prepared a funeral pyre made of horse saddles to kill himself on, for death was preferable to falling to Aetius and Thorismund. But when word of the Roman-Allied with drawl reached Attila he called everything off and packed up, soon crossing back over the Rhine and into Pannonia again.
In conclusion the Battle of Chalons, or Catalaunian Fields, was one of the major battles of its era, while many modern historians have ridiculed Chalons’ status in light of Attila’s return the following year completely unfazed some still hold that at Chalons the Romans and their allies saved Western Europe from a much darker Dark Ages. |
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